Origins of the Shonen-ai and Yaoi Manga Genres
Abstract
This article discusses mainly the works of Japanese manga authors of the 1970s - Takemiya Keiko and Hagio Moto, who created the manga genre shōnen-ai (boys’ love). This manga genre, intended for female audiences and developed in Japan, had been considerably influenced by European art, especially by French literature and cinema. Such films as “This Special Friendship” (1964) or works of Jean Cocteau and other French writers formed a special aesthetics of manga about beautiful boys who love each other.
About the Author
Y. A. Magera
National Research University “Higher School of Economics” (HSE)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
References
1. Angles, J. (2011) Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishōnen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
2. Boyarinova, P.A. (2015). Osobennosti proyavleniya “gendernogo bespokoistva” v egalitarnoy culture (na primere yaponskogo romana “Torikaebaya Monogatari”) [Main Features of “Gender Trouble” Phenomenon in the Egalitarian Culture (By the analysis of a Japanese novel Torikaebaya Monogatari)]. Tomsk State University Journal. № 397. Pp. 108-113. (In Russian)
3. Freud, S. (2018). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Global Grey e-books. https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/content/books/ebooks/three-essays-on-the-theory-of-sexuality.pdf (accessed: 10 December 2019).
4. Gravett, P. (2004). Through a Woman’s Eyes. In Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New-York: Collins Design. Pp. 74-95.
5. Hagio Moto. (1994) Jūichinin Iru! [They Were Eleven]. Tokyo: Shōgakukan bunko.
6. Hagio Moto. (1995) Tōma no Shinzō [The Heart of Thomas]. Tokyo: Shōgakukan bunko.
7. Jean, G. (2003). Chudo o roze [Miracle of the Rose]. Translated by A. Smirnova. Saints-Petersburg: Amphora. Also available at: https://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1003407 (accessed: 10 December 2019). (In Russian)
8. Lazarev, A. (2007). Takarazuka. Yaponiya segodnya. № 1. Pp. 12-15. (In Russian)
9. MacLelland, M. (2000). Male homosexuality and popular culture in modern Japan. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context. Issue 3. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue3/mclelland2.html (accessed: 10 December 2019).
10. Mizoguchi Akiko. (2010). Theorising comics/manga genre as a productive forum: yaoi and beyond. In Global Manga Studies. Vol. 1: Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale. Kyoto: International Manga Research Center, Kyoto Seika University. Рр. 145-170.
11. Mizoguchi Akiko. (2003). Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of “Yaoi” Fictions. U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. № 25. Pp. 49-75.
12. Miller, I. (2014). Zhan Kokto: smert’ i yunosha [Jean Cocteau: Death and the Young Man]. Chastnyi Korrespondent. http://www.chaskor.ru/article/zhan_kokto_smert_i_yunosha_18373 (accessed: 10 December 2019). (In Russian)
13. Mishima Yukio. (2016). Confessions of a Mask. Freeditorial Publishing House. https://freeditorial.com/en/books/confessions-of-a-mask (accessed: 10 December 2019).
14. Mori Mari. (1993). Koibitotachi no mori [The Lovers’ Forest]. Mori Mari zenshū. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Chikuma shobō. Pp. 7-73.
15. Murasaki Shikibu. (2002). The Tale of Genji. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. Public Library. http://public-library.uk/ebooks/39/11.pdf (accessed: 10 December 2019).
16. Nagaike Kazumi. (2007). “L’homme fatal” and (Dis)empowered Women in Mori Mari’s Male Homosexual Trilogy. Japanese Language and Literature. № 1. (Vol. 41). Pp. 37-59.
17. Nakata Kaori. (2004). The Room of Sweet Honey: The Adult Shōjo Fiction of Japanese Novelist Mori Mari (1903-1987). Columbus: Ohio State University.
18. Rygina L. (2004). Animatsiya nebesnogo tsveta [Animation of skyblue color]. Okno v Yaponiyu. № 25. http://www.ru-jp.org/rygina01.htm (accessed: 10 December 2019). (In Russian)
19. Takemiya Keiko. (2016). Shōnen no Na wa Jirubēru [Boy’s name is Gilbert]. Tokyo: Shōgakukan.
20. Takemiya Keiko. (1977). Kaze to Ki no Uta. [The Song of Wind and Trees]. Vol. 1. Tokyo: Shōgakukan.
21. Tezuka Osamu. (2011-12). Printsessa-rytsar’. [Princess Knight]. Vol. 1-3. Yekaterinburg: Comics Factory. (In Russian)
22. Thorn, M. (2005). The Moto Hagio Interview. The Comics Journal. № 269. Pp. 138-175.
23. Toku Masami. (2003). Interview with Keiko Takemiya, http://www.csuchico.edu/~mtoku/vc/interviews_full/Interview%20w_Takemiya.html (accessed: 10 December 2019).
24. Torikaebaya Monogatari, ili Putanitsa [Torikaebaya Monogatari, or Confusion]. (2003). Translated by M.V. Toropygina. Saints-Petersburg: Hyperion. (In Russian)
25. Vincent, K. (2007). A Japanese Electra and Her Queer Progeny. Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pp. 64-79.
26. Welker, J. (2011). Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga. Mechademia 6. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Pp. 211-228.
Review
For citations:
Magera Y.A. Origins of the Shonen-ai and Yaoi Manga Genres. Russian Japanology Review. 2019;2(2):103-127. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24411/2658-6789-2019-10012
Views: 246
Email this article 